Thursday, December 31, 2009

1.0

I had a chance to play with a former guildie last night.  She wasn't running in her current guild's 10 man ICC, so she tagged along with us.  We basically guild-pugged 10 man ToC then moved into ICC.  The former guildie left on really good terms.  Basically, she wanted more serious raiding and quicker progression.  Those are things that we are not able to provide, so it makes very good sense to move to a more 'hardcore' guild for that style of game-play.  She plays a resto druid with offspec boomkin.

Anyway, basically everybody was on an alt; even both of our tanks.  We cleared ToC in under an hour, quite a good pace for us.  Obviously our former guildie did really well, so did everybody else.

Moving into ICC, we had a little bit slower run.  We cleared Marrow pretty smoothly.  At that point is was about 1 AM and I needed to go to sleep.  As I was logging off I was chatting with our former guildie.  She said that in some ways she really missed Black Axe Clan.  We don't worry about wipes.  We don't yell at one another.  We have fun.  That was the best thing I heard in a long time.  I have realistic ideas of how quickly progression comes to our groups.  I really get frustrated by that at times.

We're approaching our 5th anniversary as a guild, and a big part of that is our attitude and acceptance.  Our espirit de corps.  I love it.  Thanks guildies!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

We're going mobile

So - this Christmas I'm on vacation with family in Florida.  My parents have a condo down here - so me and the kids fly down from Chicago to enjoy the weather a bit while they are on break from school.

I have my laptop - which is my typical gaming rig.  My internet is basically pirated from my parent's neighbor's wireless (with the neighbor's permission, actually).  The connection is not great.

Dalaran is tough, raiding is basically impossible, management is awkward.  Anyway, for the week or so I'm down here, I let the guild coast through on its own.  Sometimes this has lead o a bit of an exodus, and sometimes everybody else in on holiday too, so there are no real consequences at all.  I view this time as a bit of a litmus test for the guild.  If everything goes well without me - we are pretty healthy.  If there are problems - well, this time brings them up and they get settled, one way or another.

My fellow officers in the guild have been around quite a long time, and everybody gets along pretty well.  Sometimes people get a little slack in their officer-duties, but usually there is enough action to keep everybody plugging away.  Guild-wise the only concerns would be inappropriate behavior, but in our guild, that is basically never an issue.

I hope when I return to a more stable connection that all is well.  I'm sure it is, but it still feels like a left the house full of trust-worthy teenagers.  When Guild Leaders have their role for a long time, and reflect upon all the effort that goes into management, there is always a loving concern for the welfare of their guild.
. . . or am I way too committed?   : )

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

So, I started looking through the Twisted Nether Blog List.  About 50% of the blogs listed in there are either inactive or have posted less than 2x since July.  I have started blogging myself - just for fun, and to do a little bit of writing a few times a week (a creative outlet for me).  Looking for sites to refer to, to plagiarize from, led me to Twisted Nether.  Anyway, I seen to be finding fewer long-term blogs.

Part of this is just the nature of blogging, and the nature of a game with the longevity of WoW.  There are very few blogs that last 5 years.  People quit playing every day.  They also quit blogging every day.  However, there are new people playing the game everyday.  There must also be blogs like mine, that have started recently.

Anyway, has anybody else noticed this?  Has anybody found the good new voices that must be out there?

I also want to make clear that I, personally, think that the game is better than ever.  There there is a challenge for more people than ever.  That the high-end raiders have a smaller window to make their mark, the mid-level teams have a chance to grab some world-firsts, the lower-level raiders have access to progression content, that non-raiders have more to do in the game than ever!  I think the game is changing in wonderful ways.  I am not predicting the 'end of WoW'.  But I have noticed that most marriages don't last 5 years, so it is amazing that a MMORPG can last that long.  It is even MORE AMAZING that a game can thrive over that long of a time.  But, with a huge population, some folks leave - take extended breaks - get married and have kids - whatever - and that interferes with both gaming and blogging.

AFK for the holidays

Most of the Guild are adults.  There are a few high schoolers, more college age folks, but most of the Guild consists of grownups.  Like me they have jobs, families and kids.  Most of the Guild has plans that prevent them from being around during the holidays.  They are shuffling between grandparents houses.  They are taking the kids to see Santa.

I have my kids at home this week - they are on break from school (they are 5 and 7).  They can watch TV for an hour in the morning while I get a random dungeon done on one of my healers.  Then during 'rest time' I can usually hammer out the random daily on my warrior and the other healer.

So far, my raid time has not been altered.  However, we're flying to visit the grandparents on Christmas day.  For the eight days following that I will be relying on the pirated wireless connection from my parents neighbors.  I also will have the disapproving glares of my parents as I 'waste my time' playing (while they watch TV). 

Overall, our raid schedule is on pause until after new years.  The huge advantage of being in a mature guild, is that everybody knows what is coming, and everybody knows that raiding takes a back seat this week.  Real life > WoW.  That is most obvious at the holidays.  Nevertheless, I love that my real life is still more important than the game.  I love that when I play, my guildies feel the same.  Thank God.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Carebears care! (and usually fail)

This is much more of a raid-leadership post than a guild-leadership post, but it needs to be said:
evaluating the raid team is essential to success.

OK, that isn't very clear; what I mean to say is: tell people about their mistakes, lack of gear, or lack of skill.
Sometimes there is a legit reason for somebody to be playing below their usual level: new spec? trying new gear? gem or glyph changes?  Sometimes people have bad nights with their ISP connection.  But in order for a player to be having a bad night, they need to have had a reliable string of good nights first.

Much more commonly, in my experience, is a new raider who is over his or her head.  They are missing gems or enchants, have a hodge-podge of gear, or have not raided with their class.  Maybe they are very used to PVP or soloing.  Maybe they got run-through some lower level content.  Maybe they are being asked to do something different (CC in the faction champions fight comes to mind).  All these things can lower their output.  Sometimes, they just don't know what to do.  The trick is to determine who you are dealing with.

A really good raider, a holy priest, changed from holy to disc for the Saurfang fight.  He seemed to be struggling a little bit.  My priest, Acquinas, has been disc forever, so after a few pulls, I looked at his spec and we made some adjustments.  After that, his output was awesome.  In the same raid (which was desperate for heals), a fellow guildie brought his resto druid, an alt.  The druid was not geared to this level.  I was astonished at his output, given his gear, but still, he was just not ready for the content.

In these two healer situations there is a clear analysis, and corrections; for the priest, fix the spec and rotation; for the druid - he's doing all the right things, but needed moar gearz.

It's not all bad news tho!  In this analysis, I love taking the opportunity to take some people who are doing great things and publicly congratulating them for being awesome.  "Dude, whatever your rotation is - you're kicking ass!"   "Holy cow! You are getting that CC off every time!  Awesome!"  "Hey guildies, if anybody wants to see somebody who knows his class, check this guy out!"

In any event, without adequate evaluation any raid team will not be as successful as they should be.  Everybody can be doing something better.  Progression typically demands it.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Oh the places we'll go!

We have options for raiding all of a sudden.

Our guild might not be ready for ICC 25.  If I picked our 30 best people I'd set up a great team, and I think we'd roll through ICC like everybody else is at the moment.  However, we're casual.  Our fellow guildies have lives, jobs, families and other stuff to do.  Our 30 best cannot create a team.  We can't all be on at the same time.  So, we have 15 great players, and 10 people of a generally mixed group of experience.  We have had issues in the past dodging balls on the Twins in ToC.  We have not cleared Uld 25 (on easy mode).

Our realistic choices for 25 man raid night are:
ToC (easymode)
Ony
VoA
Weekly Raid Quest
attempt ICC

In a 3 hour raid night, that is actually a lot to chose from.  I think the officers are of mixed opinion.  Some have less confidence in the guild than I do.  Some want to try new content.  Some want to get older content completed.  Some want to do whatever would give the guild the most gear in the fastest time.  If I put it to a vote, I think we would split the vote pretty evenly.  So, ultimately the decision is up to me.  Well . . . crap.  I guess this is why I get paid the big bucks.  Well, not actually get paid, but more like pay small bucks to keep the website up and send extra time herding cats.

Anyway, since I never knew what I'm going to get raid-team-wise, I can't really make the decision until I see who is coming to raid.  If we get 20 pros - I want to do Weekly raid / ICC.  If we get 10 pros, Ony / Weekly Raid / ToC.  But we'll get 17 and I'll be totally stuck. Hehehe.  So the question is, dear reader, easy and win, or hard and lose?

I'm not bad, I'm just geared that way

It was inevitable.  I finally ran into a random group with a bad healer.  Resto druid with gear score under 4k, and a few pieces of cloth with +hit on them.  He specced properly.  In the same group we had one good mage, and a very green DK and a somewhat afk rogue.

We rolled into DTK and kicked ass.  We aoe-d all the trash pretty easily.  The rogue kept accidentally pulling the wrong groups of mobs, but somehow my shockwave would be off cooldown and I'd charge in and stun the group and they'd all be mine.  I came in 3rd in dmg (and my warrior is not a dps machine as prot - or as fury for that matter).

Anyway, I am much more confident tanking in random heroics now.  With such a mediocre group to fly through the instance so easily was very reassuring.  I still think warrior tanking is the 4th option tank-wise for most encounters, but seeing as how my DK has no gear, my druid hasn't been feral since level 69 and my paladin is level 34, I really don't have much of a choice.

Casual raiding guild blues

I am anticipating disaster.  This will be followed by resentment.  Then the exodus will occur.  It's the mmorpg casual guild Circle of Life.

When we have new content released, a lot of our guild members get back in the game.  They play much more and want to do all the new content right away.  MOST of these folks have not finished the old content, since they got bored with it.  They have not maxxed out their gear.  They have not tried the content on the PTR or followed it online.  Without thinking about it, they want to get carried through content.  Some of them have been grinding out their gear, pugging some raids, and getting better, but have not joined a team or formed a team of their own.

Our guild has over 200 people, on 450 characters.  Most of the gulidies are real people, with real lives, family, school, work, jail time to serve, etc.  They understand that if they can't attend our posted raid times, that they can try again with us next week, do other stuff or join a PuG.  I encourage people to find friends within the guild to play with regularly.  Make 5 man or 10 man teams.  Set up their own group within the guild.  Make it a community.  So far, we have 2 10 man teams.  So 20 people are accounted for.  There will be at least a dozen more people who feel, since I am guild leader, I should find a team for them.  I can't do that.  I am busy with playing the game myself.  Me and the other guild officers have taken a lot of time to work on our guild - decent forums, lots of encouragement, creating a safe, friendly place to play with lots of other people.  I can't make a team for everybody, then make sure everybody show up every time, and when they dont show up, find somebody to fill . . .I do that on MY team.

I don't mean to be dismissive, but everybody needs to play the game for themselves.  I would love for a few extra people to take the initiative of building a team.  I want everybody to have fun, but I can't make them do it.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Onions always make me cry

Open letter to Paul, the raid killer.

I loved this post.  Also, The onion is the greatest thing ever.

LFG - guild killer?

I am our guild's biggest cheerleader.  I encourage.  I put up posts in the forums.  I change the message of the day.  Go Black Axe Clan!

I have pugged about 90% of my instances this week with my healers and tank.  I did a few runs, but nearly ALL of my runs were random.  I can tell myself that is was because of the Frost Emblems.  A big part of it was.  Frost emblems are hard for me to come by otherwise, since we're not quite ready for ICC 10.  But there is something very sweet in the anonymity of the random group.  Also, the random groups tend to be pretty decent.  There is usually one dps-er who is way below everybody else, but I have yet to encounter a terrible tank or healer.  The groups are usually polite.  Gameplay is usually very solid.  Overall, it is every bit as good as running in a guild run.  The bonus for me - I don't have to be 'guild leader' in the pug.  I can just sit back and play.

I see much much more dungeon running these days, and sometimes it is a full guild group, but much more often I see 1-2 guildies per instance.

I don't know what the long-term effects of separating folks is going to be.  Black Axe will be fine - we've been around forever, and are big enough and casual enough that there will be mild effects.  But I do wonder about other guilds.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Why am I happy running Heroic Old Kingdom?

So, I was able to run 5 or 6 random groups yesterday.  I also did 3 groups with me healing on my priest and my guildie, Akaichisuru, tanking on his paladin.  Akaichisuru (who for reasons known only to himself is called 'Waffle'), is a LEET tank so finding 3 dps to run through a few heroics was easy.

Overall, I really like the new grouping system.  There is a strong motivation to run random groups.  Since I am always either healing or tanking, I never have to wait for a group it seems.

I have been grouped with folks pretty close to me as far as gear score goes, so I have a feeling that most people know the encounters, and do not need a lot of reminding of what to do.  Heroics are very easy, so generally we're clearing these dungeons super-fast.  15-30 minutes per run.  We never explain strats, we just blast right through with me occasionally asking to wait for mana (since I typically am adding a little dps to the mix - which kills time, but doesn't help very much with killing monsters).  There have been no loot issues, no flamez, no hate.  Basically, everybody just wants to get stuff done as fast as they can.  Since everybody is pretty OP, it's not an issue.


I think the new system is going to work out great.  I think the old days of waiting for a group in /lfg were pretty miserable for dps, and now it's vastly improved.  /cheers to Blizzard!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

3.3 patch day

12/8/2009 - 1:12 pm.
We are now 12 minutes past servers opening.  I have not seen any announcement about when they will actually come back online.
"When it's ready"  seems to fit pretty well here.

Patch Day To-do List

  1. Download patch - you can't keep score unless you know the players kids
  2. Update mods - most will end up being broken to some degree, but get ahead of the curve as much as possible.
  3. Homework - read http://www.wow.com/ and wow.curse.com for patch updates on boss encounters
  4. Try to log in
  5. Try again
  6. Try again
  7. Kick cat
  8. Swear a bit
  9. Try to log in
  10. Watch loading screen
  11. Learn Chinese
  12. Sleep
  13. Log in on Wednesday

The Early Raider Gets the Bugs

There is a strong urge to raid on patch days.  Everybody wants to get into new content ASAP.  I know I do.  I can't wait to see the new content.  I absolutely want to try out the new random lfg system.  I have a tank and two healers, so I think I'm gonna be 100% set.

But, I insist that the guild avoids organized raids on patch day.  That has been a 2 year old rule.  Patch day is universally a clusterf---.  The servers will not get online for hours after the appointed time.  Folks will lag out all over the place.  Everybody's mods will either be broken, or not updated.  And, there are also bugs in the game that cause crashes.  Essentially, all of the bad stuff happens on patch day.  I consider it a holiday.  There will be no work today.  Period.

If the servers do get up on time, I'm TOTALLY going to pug into the new stuff tho'!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Follow me! I know the way . . .

Well, I am lucky enough to be friends with a few of the really solid raiding guilds on my server.  When the content stops being progression, these guilds sometimes need extra heals or an off-tank, or one of the classes I seem to be able to bring.  There are a few great benefits when I get to pug a raid with a raiding guild:
- The tricks that they use to stay efficient can be really helpful
- Boss strats, bugs are easier to explore in game than in videos
- I tend to meet folks who have a lot of skill, and may have alts that need gear from raids below their main progression runs . . . my friends list is usually pretty solid
- I am reminded why I don't want to be in a leading edge progression guild.

When I get to just follow along, life is easy.  The guys who lead the raids in realm-first-competitive guilds need to be not as nice as I want to be.  They HAVE to do it, basically.  To produce results, they need to drive their teams hard, and while most raiders on teams like this do really well without too much guidance, even in these guilds, discipline is very important and needs constant attention.

I would rather be a social director, and allow raiding to happen vigorously, but without pressure.  I think I can keep people pretty happy about the social aspect of the guild.  I think I can keep people informed, connected and give them opportunities to explore raiding - even progression raiding.  To drive any one aspect of the guild toward the hardcore, well, that is something that I don't have the ability to do.  So, I'm glad that I have awesome friends who can open the window to that part of the game.

Dont despair!

How do you talk to guildies about raiding when PuGs do as well or better than guild runs?
What is the incentive for folks to raid with the guild? 

Typically, I talk about having fun in raids.  It is fun to kill stuff, but having fun with guildies is that and more.  When you know people in a raid, their success means a lot.  When it's just you, only YOUR success matters.  The more experienced raiders can make a difference in a raid with guildies who are less experienced.  This is how teamwork develops.  Also, for the folks who raid with the guild, they have the more tangible benefit of keeping whatever loot drops in the guild. 

When talking to these potential raiders - who are in the middle of the pack in many good PuGs, but are at the top of the list for us - I want to avoid talking about sacrifice or responsibility to the guild.  I don't want people to feel negatively about raiding with the guild.  Down that road people get burned out, and feel like to be successful they need to leave.

Ultimately, people will want to do more and they will leave.  Those who stay will be the folks who are ok with slower progression, dont mind pugging once in a while, and who really want to help out their friends once in a while.  Also, many of our guildies have been down the 'hardcore' road before.  They get stuck because of real life obligations and then realize they have to quit WoW.  Or they learn that a hobby is something to do in your spare time and moderate their WoW playing.  These folks dont need convincing that 6 hours raiding a week is plenty.  That having fun, being casual is ok . . . as long as progression happens too!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Patches, we don't need your stinking patches!

On one hand, I am really eager for the Icecrown to drop.  I think my 10 man is going to do pretty well.  We won't have many realm firsts - somewhere in the vicinity of zero percent chance.  But, we should be able to make some good progression.

Still, I sorta wish we had more time before 3.3.  I know many, many guilds are bored with the current content, but we're still working on it.

There are so many changes when new content comes out.  Class changes, new recipes, new instances.  The first few days are always as chaotic as Christmas morning in a house full of 7 year olds.  Broken mods, bugs, server lag, extended maintenance . . .

Ultimately, wiping on 3 hours before new content in order to get that first new boss dead on opening day will be pretty sweet.

Thursday Night - Must Raid CC

Black Axe went back into ToC tonight.  We cruised through VoA for a warm up, which was nice.  We 22-manned it.  Then into ToC for Faction Champions.  Had a wipe or two right out of the gate.  Then we got into the groove.  We killed 1 for every 2 or 3 we lost, by the end it was 10 vs 2, but we got 'em.  Took about 16 minutes.  I died early.  I probably could have made a pie.  I like pie.  I totally could have made a pie and had it in the oven.  Well, I did NOT make pie, but we did clear the encounter.  I'm very grateful to my guildies for carrying me through that fight.  There is no love for trees or chickens in Faction Champions.

Anyway, we moved on to twins.  Again, it took a while for people to figure out how to stay alive.  Living raiders do WAY more damage.  Once we turned the corner there, we did really well and cleared them too.

Anub was not so nice.  We couldn't find a good balance with him.  Chins were held pretty high even though we didn't get to finish ToC for the week.  It was nice to have 2 full 25 man days for the guild.  It has been a while since we've had that, or done this well.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Tanking Teams

Setting up a tanking team can be tricky.  Ultimately, 'bring the player, not the class' is probably MOST true with tanking.  Today I heard tanking described as 30% science and 70% art.  I think that is a little generous, but in essence, it's true.  We've all run in PuGs, or in VoA with a MT or OT who has 45k health, but forgets to pick up some adds.  I've seen tanks try Koralon with 52k health who figure that they can just stand in the fire and 'get heals'.  In tanking, perhaps more than in other classes, your 'rotation' is secondary to your objective.  Gear certainly helps in tanking, but there is a wide range of acceptable gear for the content is available right now.

The most important thing about tanking is having a tank who WANTS to tank.  Personally, I get burned out from tanking.  I can do it for a while, but then I need to move to something else.  There really is much more pressure tanking.  For healers, the pressure is similar, but I've spent a lot of time doing both, and personally, I feel twice the pressure tanking as I do healing.  The 2nd or 3rd tank job is another role that is challenging on its own.  I usually feel like the second best (or third) and that is usually not a great feeling.  It does take a special motivation to want to be a tank.  Getting 2 people totally dedicated to it is essential.  Having 2 people ready to fill take role, while primarily doing something else is also needed.  We use 3 tanks on certain encounters.  Most of the time we just need 2, so having one tank, who can dps well, or provide extra heals, is a great benefit.

In a good raid, everybody is comfortable with their role for an encounter.  They fill that role, and if able, help others too.  The MT pallie who has a minute to sit around waiting for Onyxia to drop, and gets off some heals  . . .that guy is a hero.  The DK OT who changes his presence for phase 3, swaps out the weapons and piles on 750 more dps . . . that is somebody who understands his class, and his ability.  The OT warrior, who gets the debuffs up on the mobs, move the vigilance around to help folks reduce their threat . . .I want that guy on the team.
So, I have posted this on our guild forums.  Here is a list of my favorite podcasts.  I have a long commute on the days I work (about an hour each way).  Having these podcasts pretty much fills the whole commute (and saves a ton of money on my cellphone bill).

The Instance

The twisted nether blogcast

WoW.com

I prefer The Instance to just about all the other podcasts for WoW I've heard.  The sound production is usually the best.  Scott and Randy, the hosts, are usually funny and upbeat.  It sounds like they are having fun podcasting and it sounds like they are having fun in the game.

The twisted nether blogcast is something I've only been listening to for a few weeks.  I think the material in the podcast is really more about blogging about WoW (it's a little bit meta).  Nevertheless, they bring in a different person to interview each week.  That fresh voice is really refreshing.

The wow.com podcast is fun too.  It is not quite as well produced as The Instance, but Mike and Turpster are great hosts.  And, like Scott and Randy, have a lot of fun with WoW.  Plus, the WoW.com blog is outstanding.

There are a bunch of non-wow podcasts that I enjoy:
SMODcast
This American Life
Savage Love Podcast

SMOD and Savage Love are definately NSFW, but everything else should be ok for little ears.

Tuesday Night Raiding Club

Tuesday night is 25-man night.
On the tap for this Tuesday was Onyxia and Trial of the Crusader.
Log report for 12/1/9 for Black Axe Clan

Building the group went ok, but not great.  We had 20 people instantly.  6 healers and 1 full-time tank.  Abhorred has a good tanking set for DK and was my first choice to OT (but we prefer him dps-ing).  Other than that it was a crap-shoot.  I was considering getting on my warrior to tank, but Sondebar (one of our leading mages) hoped on his DK to be another OT.  At this point we had 24 and were going to bring in another dps, but luckily one of the guild main tanks, Judeaded, logged on to fill a spot.  This let Abhorred go back to dps, which is just full of win, and we had the makings of a great group.
We only had one hunter.  We only had one shaman.  Healing team was 3 priests, 2 druid and a paladin.  Not a bad mix, especially since everybody knew their business.  Tanking team was Pallie, and 2 DKs.


Onyxia was first.  I'm often asked why we do that first.  Essentially, I see it as a warm up.  Sometimes it takes folks a few minutes to realize that they are raiding, and in that interval we have a few folks die from inattention.  Onyxia is something that we can easily kill with 20 people, so I like starting there.  Plus, because it's so short, we typically end up giving out some loot that can get quickly gemmed and enchanted before we start ToC.

On this night we did wonderfully in Onyxia:
  • Akaichisuru, our MT, d/c'd when the whelps first appeared, but the two DK OTs did a great job of picking them up and Akaichisuru was able to hop back in quickly.  I too always get a huge lag spike during that first AOE blast.  Typically, I have Recount hidden, but I think I need to be turning it off entirely to avoid the processing lag.
  • Nobody died to her breath, and only 2 or 3 people were hit by it at all.
  • The only death was an unfortunate melee who was feared into a cleave and got 1-shot.  That was pretty near the end, so I was not at all concerned.
We passed out a few helms and weapons and ported over to ToC.  At this point our casual-ness showed through.  It took about 20 minutes to get set up in ToC after the loot was passed out.  A few people took the time to afk, a few people had gone to Auction House . . .essentially, time was wasted.

Nevertheless, we one shot Beasts of Northrend.  That is not unusual, really.  But we did it without allowing Icehowl to enrage at all.  Last week, he enraged on every charge (including hitting ME once!).  This week, not once.

Jax went down super smoothly.  Lost one person who lagged a little when he had the fire on him.  Clothies + fire = toasty cloth.

We took a 5 min break before PVP for bio and a little R&R.  Coming back to the PVP event we were facing: disc priest, tree, holy pallie, rogue, warrior, enhancement shaman, DK, hunter, warlock, shadow priest.  Basically, a nightmare group for us.  We usually do really well when there is fewer melee.  We wiped a bunch.  It seemed as though we had everybody cc-ing and nobody dps-ing for a few seconds, then everybody dps-ing and nobody cc-ing for a few seconds.  We had rotations for cc assigned, and we had all kinds of teams for that, but it was still a giant mess.  Even when we killed the priest quickly, the tide would shift and we would get behind the dps-curve.

Most of us were pretty frustrated by it.  Especially on that fight it is hard to find something to correct.  Because the fight is so chaotic, we cannot tell who is missing a cc or who is not getting their cleanse off or whatever.  We spent about 45 minutes in there (maybe more).  We ended up calling it a night a little early to avoid burning out.

The Faction Champions fight is tricky, no doubt, but it is one that we have had success with in the past.  I think that our team's overall lack of experience shows a little bit in that fight.  The deep knowledge of class and race abilities is less when people have not had as much experience raiding.  Still, it was a fun night, and the fact that we really flew through the first 3 encounters was great.

We are scheduled to get back into ToC on Thursday for more PVP love.  Fingers are crossed.